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Ted Hughes' poem 'Hawk Roosting' is a powerful exploration of the Hawk's connection to nature and its unchallenged dominance. Through five stanzas, the Hawk speaks in the first person, asserting its superiority and claiming ownership of creation. The poem's structure, language, and themes highlight the Hawk's strength, arrogance, and brutality, while also touching upon the contrast between the Hawk's and human cruelty.
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I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed. Inaction, no falsifying dream Between my hooked head and hooked feet: Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat. The convenience of the high trees! The air's buoyancy and the sun's ray Are of advantage to me; And the earth's face upward for my inspection.
My feet are locked upon the rough bark. It took the whole of Creation To produce my foot, my each feather: Now I hold Creation in my foot Or fly up, and revolve it all slowly - I kill where I please because it is all mine. There is no sophistry in my body: My manners are tearing off heads - The allotment of death. For the one path of my flight is direct Through the bones of the living. No arguments assert my right: The sun is behind me. Nothing has changed since I began. My eye has permitted no change. I am going to keep things like this. STANZA ONE ‘Hawk roosting’ is a significant example of Ted Hughes’ love for nature and his special bonding with the natural world, which leads him to place the Hawk at a special pedestal. The title of the poem ‘Hawk roosting’ upholds the position of The Hawk as the protagonist and the speaker in the poem. Written in the first person, The Hawk has been personified as it proclaims its superiority over the human world. All through its length, the poem follows a consistent structure, each stanza being a quartet, which suggests the indisputable supremacy of the Hawk. The Hawk becomes a metaphor for power The opening line “I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed,” signifies the exalted position of the Hawk. The poem strikes a meditative and ruminating mood as the Hawk seems to take a pause and justify its superiority. The use of caesura that holds the pace right at the outset in the opening line, signifies the tone of quiet contemplation, also suggested by the ‘closed eyes’. The repetition of the word “hooked”, “Between my hooked head and hooked feet”, suggests how the Hawk takes pride in its special ability as a bird of prey and whether in sleep or in action the Hawk is aware of its special talent. As it says, “Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat,” the poet seems to suggest that the
my foot.” The personification of the Hawk through the entire length of the poem brings the bird of prey into a unique significance. STANZA FOUR The enjambment in the lines at the start of stanza four, continuing with the concluding line of the preceding stanza, “Now I hold creation in my foot/ Or fly, and revolve it all slowly” Suggest the superiority of The Hawk in all circumstances whether sitting with its feet “locked upon the rough bark” or encircling in the sky to sight its prey. “I kill where I please because it's all mine” reinforces the truth that the Hawk does not deviate from its claim of being a killer and states it honestly and bluntly that it kills where ‘it pleases’ and it seems that the entire world and Creation is under the Hawk’s control. It proclaims it's godlike position as it announces how it holds creation in its foot considering itself to be no example of “sophistry” as suggested by the use of the negative, “There is no sophistry in my body:” The Hawk is brutally honest and the use of the language of aggression supports its brutal honesty and its brutality. “My manners are tearing off heads” The Hawk takes a brutal pride in its brutal strength. As an undertone the poet seems to suggest the difference between the Hawk and human cruelty as they do so under the garb of the facade (cover) and the veil of hypocrisy. The blatant truth spoken by the Hawk symbolizes its honesty and bare reality in contrast with the duplicity exercised in the human world. STANZA FIVE The 5th stanza opens with the simple declarative statement, “The allotment of death.” The Hawk’s words resound the command of the ruthless dictators as it is seen to define its role as a creator and a destroyer who decides who lives and who dies. The absence of caesura accompanies the hawk’s projection of the uninterrupted headlong ‘path of its flight’ through “the bones of the living”. “No arguments assert my right:” make use of the negative to reinforce the hawk’s authority and domination which does not accept any arguments, confrontation or negation. STANZA SIX The concluding stanza once again makes a simple declarative statement: “The sun is behind me.” The use of the negative, “Nothing has changed since I began” supports the hawk’s unprecedented position. “My eye has permitted no change. I am going to keep
things like this.” leads the concluding stanza to justify the hawk’s might, power and authority. The concluding lines assert the Hawk’s might and position that the Hawk maintains to be all of its own. It is not willing to exchange it with anyone else. Even the mighty sun is seen to play a secondary role and supports its presence. The poem acquires symbolic and metaphysical interpretation as the poem links to the circle of life, suggesting that the superior position of the Hawk and its reign (Rule) will never end.
